‘Wild, houseless Outer Shore’ captured for film

An elated Henry Beston, played by Cape actor Chris Kolb, rejoices after finding a large patch of rosa rugosa during filming sessions outside the Ray Wells Dune Shack, operated by the Peaked Hill Trust. "Henry Beston's Cape Cod" film director Christopher Seufert, right, is completing a two-week residency at the shack. Seufert, a Chatham native, qualified for the residency with his work on the Beston Society's documentary film project. (Photos by Don Wilding/Henry Beston Society)

“There are two Cape Cods in the world, one of the picturesque and familiar land of toy windmills, picnickers and motorists, the other the Cape of the wild, houseless outer shore, the countless tragic wrecks, the sand bars and the shoals,” Henry Beston wrote in The Wardens of Cape Cod, a magazine article he authored for The World’s Work in 1923.

The latter is what Henry Beston’s book, The Outermost House, which grew out of that magazine article five years later, was all about, and it’s what the nonprofit Henry Beston Society and its feature length documentary film project continue to carry on. The film project’s scenic footage department got a huge boost in this area this week, as Christopher Seufert of Chatham, the film’s director, took his talents to the Ray Wells Dune Shack in Provincetown for his residency, which he was granted for his work on the movie in the nonprofit’s Residency Program for the Arts Sciences this spring. The Rays Well Shack, one of 19 dune shacks in The Dune Shacks of Peaked Hill Bars Historic District in Provincetown and Truro, is the epitome of that “wild, houseless outer shore.”

Seufert has captured much of the Cape’s wild side over the past two weeks, and on Tuesday, was joined by producer Don Wilding and Chris Kolb, the Cape-based actor who is playing Henry Beston in the reenactment scenes of the film. Here’s a look at the producer and actor in a unique panoramic view on the Outer Beach (the blog author’s iPad loves it; the desktop, not so much). There’s 20 photos from that session here, so scroll further down and have a look.

So where’s the film project at, you might ask? A three-minute video trailer will be posted online by early summer, and will be followed later in the season by two six-minute web episodes, or “webisodes,” so that the public can get a better idea of what the film is all about. We’ll also be gradually integrating some of this footage into our multi-media lecture presentations (upcoming events are in Webster on June 13 and Cohasset on June 20; four events are scheduled for the Cape in August).

Tuesday night's sunset as seen through the multiple windows of the Ray Wells Dune Shack.

Beston actor Chris Kolb, right, with film producer Don Wilding of the Henry Beston Society, as seen by the light of the kerosene lamp at the Ray Wells Dune Shack. (Photo by Christopher Seufert/Mooncusser Films)

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Blog Author

Don Wilding

Don Wilding is the executive director and co-founder of the Henry Beston Society, a non-profit organization promoting the works and philosophies of the author of "The Outermost House." A veteran of 28 years of working for newspapers in ... Read Full